Perry Kivolowitz

Perry Kivolowitz (b. 1961) is an American computer scientist and business person. In 1985, he co-founded Advanced Systems Design Group which built hardware for the Commodore Amiga. This company was renamed Elastic Reality, Inc. and became well known as a digital imaging software provider. In 1995 this company sold to Avid Technology, Inc.

In 1996 he received an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement for the invention of shape-driven warping and morphing as exemplified in the Avid Elastic Reality package once in widespread use. Dr. Garth Dickie was a co-recipient of this award. The invention is noteworthy in that it provided a means of creating warping and morphing effects using an interface which was more optimized for the user rather than the computation. Previous methods were economical for computers to calculate but difficult for users to use. Most warping software today (such as those linked from the Wikipedia morphing page) are based on the shape-driven method.

Perry is a principal in Profound Effects, Inc. and SilhouetteFX LLC.

Starting in 1997 Perry has had a continuing relationship with the Computer Sciences Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. First as an adjunct faculty member and more recently as an administrator.

External links

* [http://www.kivolowitz.net A web site maintained by Perry Kivolowitz]
* [http://www.profoundeffects.com Profound Effects web site]
* [http://www.silhouettefx.com SilhoutteFX web site]